Will Patterson, 15, of Portsmouth, is charged with shooting Portsmouth Police Officer Angelina Baaklini and participating in two of a series of area robberies that targeted users of online marketplaces.

Will Patterson Jr., 16, stands Friday in Circuit Court after a jury found him guilty of trying to kill a Portsmouth police officer.

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Will Patterson, 15, of Portsmouth, is charged with shooting Portsmouth Police Officer Angelina Baaklini and participating in two of a series of area robberies that targeted users of online marketplaces.

PORTSMOUTH

Prosecutors say a 16-year-old boy convicted of trying to kill a Portsmouth police officer is faking mental health problems in order to delay trials in two robbery cases.

And they say they have recordings of phone calls Will Patterson Jr. made from the Hampton Roads Regional Jail to prove it.

“The defendant has been planning this for quite some time,” Portsmouth prosecutor Carmen Cabrero said while opposing a defense request to postpone a trial that was set to start Monday morning.

She said Patterson said in a phone call a month ago that he planned to tell his probation officer he was seeing and hearing things. She called it a “malingering tactic.”

Despite the recordings, Circuit Judge Joel Crowe postponed the trial so Patterson could undergo a mental health evaluation. He said that even if Patterson made the comments Cab-rero cited, it was appropriate to order the evaluation because a probation officer had requested one.

Public Defender Brenda Spry, one of Patterson’s attorneys, said she also needed the postponement because a Portsmouth police officer she planned to call as a witness was unavailable.

After the shooting, police charged Patterson in two robberies targeting users of the OfferUp online marketplace. One occurred Oct. 15 in the 1600 block of Maple Ave. and netted $150. The other occurred Oct. 29 near the intersection of Duke Street and Prentis Avenue and netted $250.

In both cases, the victims went to the scene of the robbery to sell cell phones, only to be robbed by two people.

The trial for the Oct. 15 robbery has been postponed until at least June 12, when attorneys will pick a new trial date.

Patterson is set to stand trial in the other robbery on June 18 and to be sentenced for shooting Baaklini on July 10.

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